Thread by @maxkreminski

a large part of being someone's friend is setting up opportunities for them to play the kinds of roles they want to play

clearly signaling what kinds of roles you want to play helps others understand how to do this for you more effectively

social media (used effectively) amplifies your desired-role signaling: it allows you to signal more widely and more clearly

IOW, it's a powerful tool for helping people who want to be friends with you understand how to do that

twitter in particular is *all about* desired-role signaling. as a result it's an unreasonably effective "social prosthesis" for people who are bad at signaling and/or reading signals in meatspace (myself very much included)

there is no "crisis of authenticity" on social media. yes, we're all performing, but often the roles we're performing are roles we legitimately aspire to play. it's about *aspirational* authenticity – not who you Actually Are Right Now, but who you Actually Want To Be

performance of an aspirational role is an authentic statement: "I want to be read in this way". fluent users of social media know that it's all performative, & that *what role you choose to perform* when you're free to choose is immensely revelatory of what you value

most of the discourse around authenticity is founded on the unstated claim that someone's truest self is who they are right now, not who they're trying to become. this claim is deeply political, & if you invert it a whole lot of things about social media start to make more sense

performing the role of the person you want to be functions as practice at actually being that person. this is the principle of operation behind "fake it till you make it". social media, used effectively, makes you more like yourself

in conclusion: I'm more myself on the internet than I am in "real life". maybe you are too. maybe that's fine